MacMillan's Reading Books eBook

that long hence may ask their spouses’ care,
And warn
their children from a Trojan war.
Now, through
the circuit of our Ilion wall,
Let sacred
heralds sound the solemn call;
To bid the
sires with hoary honours crowned,
And beardless
youths, our battlements surround.
Firm be
the guard, while distant lie our powers,
And let
the matrons hang with lights the towers:
Lest, under
covert of the midnight shade,
The insidious
foe the naked town invade.
Suffice,
to-night, these orders to obey;
A nobler
charge shall rouse the dawning day.
The gods,
I trust, shall give to Hector’s hand,
From these
detested foes to free the land,
Who ploughed,
with fates averse, the watery way;
For Trojan
vultures a predestined prey.
Our common
safety must be now the care;
But soon
as morning paints the fields of air,
Sheathed
in bright arms let every troop engage,
And the
fired fleet behold the battle rage.
Then, then
shall Hector and Tydides prove,
Whose fates
are heaviest in the scale of Jove.
To-morrow’s
light (O haste the glorious morn!)
Shall see
his bloody spoils in triumph borne,
With this
keen javelin shall his breast be gored,
And prostrate
heroes bleed around their lord.
Certain
as this, oh! might my days endure,
From age
inglorious, and black death secure;
So might
my life and glory know no bound,
Like Pallas
worshipped, like the sun renowned!
As the next
dawn, the last they shall enjoy,
Shall crush
the Greeks, and end the woes of Troy.”

The leader
spoke. From all his host around
Shouts of
applause along the shores resound.
Each from
the yoke the smoking steeds untied,
And fixed
their headstalls to his chariot-side.
Fat sheep
and oxen from the town are led,
With generous
wine, and all-sustaining bread.
Full hecatombs
lay burning on the shore;
The winds
to heaven the curling vapours bore;
Ungrateful
offering to the immortal powers!
Whose wrath
hung heavy o’er the Trojan towers;
Nor Priam
nor his sons obtained their grace;
Proud Troy
they hated, and her guilty race.
The troops
exulting sat in order round,
And beaming
fires illumined all the ground.
As when
the moon, refulgent lamp of night!
O’er
heaven’s clear azure spreads her sacred light,
When not
a breath disturbs the deep serene,
And not
a cloud o’ercasts the solemn scene;
Around her
throne the vivid planets roll,
And stars
unnumbered gild the glowing pole;
O’er
the dark trees a yellower verdure shed,
And tip
with silver every mountain’s head.